Film Freak Centraltag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-999282957331064452014-02-05T22:20:17-05:00TypePadArgento's Dracula 3-D (2012) - Blu-ray 3D & Blu-raytag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c01a51164ced5970c2014-02-05T22:20:17-05:002014-02-05T22:17:05-05:00click any image to enlarge Dario Argento's Dracula ZERO STARS/**** Image B Sound A Extras A- starring Thomas Kretschmann, Maria Gastini, Asia Argento, Rutger Hauer screenplay by Dario Argento, Antonio Tentori, Stefano Piani, based on the novel by Bram Stoker directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw I used to love Dario Argento. Heck, who didn't? But at a certain point, it became clear that the quality of Argento's work is directly proportional (or it was for a while) to the quality of work he's riffing on. A shame that lately he appears to be mostly riffing on himself--the elderly version of a vital artist doing his best to recapture something he's lost. It was Hitchcock as muse, of course, initially, joining Argento at the hip for a while with Brian DePalma, who was doing kind of the same thing at the same time with about the same audacity in the United States. There was genius there in the Deep Reds and Suspirias, certainly in the logic-bumfuddling submerged ballroom the heroine must enter to retrieve a key in Inferno. Argento didn't really start to make bad movies until after Tenebre. Since, with notable half-exceptions like Opera and The Stendhal Syndrome,...Bill ChambersThe Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) [2-Disc Special Edition] - DVD|Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017d3cacf4b4970c2012-10-12T21:06:01-05:002012-10-12T21:09:21-05:00L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo ***½/**** DVD - Image A Sound A Extras B BD - Image A Sound A Extras B starring Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Eva Renzi, Enrico Maria Salerno written and directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw Dario Argento's uncredited adaptation of Fredric Brown's The Screaming Mimi (brought to the screen once before in 1958 by Gerd Oswald), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage marks the "Italian Hitchcock"'s directorial debut as well as the moment at which the Italian giallo genre gained international currency. Though the genre's invention (named after the yellow/giallo covers of Italian penny dreadfuls) is credited to compatriot Mario Bava (see, especially, his astonishing Blood and Black Lace), Argento's scary polish and cunning for film language bridged the cultural, mainstream/arthouse gap with agility and audacity. He's not just borrowing from Hitchcock, he's filtering the Master's work through his own sensibilities. Argento did for the slasher genre with his "supernatural" pictures like Suspiria and Inferno what Sergio Leone did for the Western, making them dirtier, sexier, rhythmic, and more acceptable to the literati; and he does here for the police procedural/neo-noir a similar kind of post-modern hipster reinvention. But it's not merely an intellectual...Bill ChambersThe Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) - DVD|Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017ee4223f85970d2012-10-12T20:51:49-05:002012-10-12T20:51:49-05:00Il gatto a nove code **½/**** DVD - Image B+ Sound B+ Extras A BD - Image A+ Sound A Extras A- starring James Franciscus, Karl Malden, Catherine Spaak, Pier Paolo Capponi written and directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw Nicknamed "The Italian Hitchcock," Dario Argento is more aptly classified "The Italian DePalma": a director with his own set of stylistic excesses who, especially early in his career, borrowed many tropes from the Master of Suspense en route to crafting his own distinctive thrillers. Again like DePalma, Argento of late has fallen on hard times, creating a series of clunkers that have blundered from the brilliant homage of his nascence to the tired and derivative garbage of his twilight. Indicated by somewhat straightforward mystery plots that elaborate death scenes and gory climaxes serve to punctuate, the giallo (so named for the colour of the covers--yellow--that enshrouded Italian penny dreadfuls) genre of thriller reached its stylistic apex with Argento's 1975 Deep Red, just prior to the director experimenting in the "supernatural" sub-genre of Italian horror with his masterpiece, Suspiria. Argento's first three films, the so-called "animal trilogy" (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o' Nine Tails, Four Flies...Bill ChambersSuspiria (1977) - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017c327e5ae9970b2012-10-12T20:37:31-05:002012-10-12T20:38:20-05:00****/**** Image A+ Sound A+ Extras D+ starring Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé screenplay by Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw At their best, Dario Argento's films are lurid splashes of Hitchcockian reinvention that bristle with audacity and a pornographer's sensibility. He deconstructs the male gaze in the mutilation of beautiful women, taking a moment (as he does in Tenebre, Opera, and Suspiria) to make guerrilla art of their extravagant suffering. Argento's films are generally split between two sub-genres of the slasher flick, each defined to a large extent by his contributions. The first is the giallo, films indicated by their impossibly convoluted mystery plots and elaborate set-piece murders; the second, of which Suspiria is one, is the "supernatural," distinguished by their surreality and lack of a traditional narrative. Known as "The Italian Hitchcock," Argento, as I've said before, is more accurately "The Italian DePalma," in that Argento's imitating reads as homage. And though he occasionally selects sources to ape badly (i.e. attempting to adapt Jeunet and Caro to "Phantom of the Opera"), when he finds the perfect source material to serve as foundation for his redux perversions (Psycho, Vertigo, The...Bill ChambersDeep Red (1975) + Inferno (1980) - Blu-ray Discstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017ee42170be970d2012-10-12T20:28:40-05:002012-10-12T20:28:40-05:00Profondo rosso ****/**** Image A Sound A Extras C starring David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Clara Calamai screenplay by Dario Argento and Bernardino Zapponi directed by Dario Argento INFERNO ***/**** Image A- Sound B Extras D starring Eleonora Giorgi, Gabriele Lavia, Veronica Lazar, Leopoldo Mastelloni written and directed by Dario Argento DEEP RED by Walter Chaw Deep Red is a transitional film from the middle of Dario Argento's most creative period, one that sees the Italian Hitchcock (better: the Italian De Palma) building surreal temples on Hitchcock's meticulous foundations before abandoning them--disastrously and without explanation--following the release of 1982's Tenebre. With little scholarship on Argento that's current and/or comprehensive, and with the director himself seldom asked about his steep decline, what's left is this notion that Argento wanted to escape the Hitchcock-derivative label (only to return to it after the spark had fled or, more likely, proved illusory all along), or that he wanted a psychic divorce from De Palma, whose career Argento's paralleled for a while in theme and execution. Whatever happened eventually, Argento in 1975 seemed to be casting about for a new direction. He'd just completed his "animal" trilogy of gialli (The Bird with the Crystal...Bill ChambersOpera (1987) - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017ee4215c84970d2012-10-12T17:24:19-05:002012-10-12T17:26:29-05:00***/**** Image A+ Sound A Extras A- starring Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, Daria Nicolodi screenplay by Dario Argento, Franco Ferreni directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw The best of Dario Argento's films rework themes and images from Alfred Hitchcock with a level of flamboyance and twisted creativity that transform would-be genre knock-offs into something truly rare and valuable. Argento utilizes the constructions of Hitchcock as a framework for lurid, colour-drenched images and wickedly inventive death sequences that are among the most shocking and agonizing in the history of cinema. Often called "The Italian Hitchcock," I find the term "The Italian De Palma" to be closer to the mark, for their obsessions, for their mastery of highly technical mimicries, and, extra-textually, for both auteurs' decades-long slides into mere imitation and schlock. (Despite their similarities, Argento and De Palma to this day hate each other with a white-hot passion.) RUNNING TIME 107 minutes MPAA Unrated ASPECT RATIO(S) 2.35:1 (16x9-enhanced) LANGUAGES English DD 5.1 EX English DTS-ES 5.1 CC Yes SUBTITLES None REGION 1 DISC TYPE DVD-9 STUDIO Anchor Bay Argento generally indulges in one of two types of films: the "giallo" (a complex whodunit with intricate murder scenes), and...Bill ChambersThe Stendhal Syndrome (1996) [2-Disc Special Edition] - DVD|Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017d3cab79dd970c2012-10-12T15:35:27-05:002012-10-12T15:36:54-05:00La sindrome di Stendhal **½/**** DVD - Image B Sound C+ Extras B BD - Image B+ Sound B+ Extras B starring Asia Argento, Thomas Kretschmann, Marco Leonardi written and directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw It's hard for me to reconcile the Dario Argento of the Seventies through to 1982's Tenebre with the Dario Argento ever after (at least until what I've heard is a remarkable comeback, the upcoming completion of his Three Mothers trilogy). The inventor almost by himself of two distinct genres of film in Italy (and just the concept of the arthouse slasher in the world), a co-writer of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, and a revolutionizer of horror-movie music became this guy who stopped aping Hitchcock and started aping...Jeunet? Himself? Even with Max Von Sydow in the fold (Non ho sonno), the pictures post-Tenebre are cheap auto-knockoffs devoid of innovation and lacking the amazingly imaginative gore that marked Argento's early gialli, the archetypal resonance of his supernaturals, or the transcendent, sometimes sublime lawlessness of his hybrids (like Suspiria, for instance, still a towering achievement). They're almost to a one these gaudy, derivative, exhausted pieces of shit. RUNNING TIME 119 minutes...Bill ChambersSleepless (2001) - DVDtag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017d3cab6549970c2012-10-12T15:12:36-05:002012-10-12T15:12:36-05:00Non ho sonno */**** Image D Sound D starring Max von Sydow, Stefano Dionisi, Chiara Caselli, Gabriele Lavia screenplay by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Carlo Lucarelli directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw Italian horror master Dario Argento's desperation for a critical or popular success is starting to manifest itself in self-imitation and sloppiness. Fourteen years removed from his last good movie (Opera), his latest film Sleepless (a.k.a. Non ho sonno), starring the inimitable Max Von Sydow and heralded as a return to Argento's roots in the giallo genre, hits North American shores months after bootleg copies of it have already circulated amongst the ranks of disappointed fanboys. Sleepless lacks the savant-level spark of invention that elevates Argento's best films (Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebre) and the flashes of brilliance that indicate his second-tier of work (Phenomena, Opera, Inferno). It is listless and painful, with fakey gore and dialogue that reaches nadir even for an auteur never known for his pen. RUNNING TIME 117 minutes MPAA R ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.33:1 LANGUAGES English DD 5.1 CC Yes SUBTITLES None REGION 1 DISC TYPE DVD-9 STUDIO Artisan Called out of retirement to investigate what appears to be the resumption of an old unsolved...Bill ChambersTrauma (1993) + The Card Player (2004) - DVDstag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017d3cab51d0970c2012-10-12T14:58:39-05:002012-10-12T14:58:39-05:00Dario Argento's Trauma **/**** Image A Sound B+ Extras B- starring Christopher Rydell, Asia Argento, Laura Johnson, Piper Laurie screenplay by Dario Argento & T.E.D. Klein directed by Dario Argento Il cartaio **½/**** Image B+ Sound B+ Extras A starring Stefania Rocca, Liam Cunningham, Silvio Muccino, Claudio Santamaria screenplay by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini directed by Dario Argento by Walter Chaw Listening to Dario Argento himself call Trauma "classic Argento" shakes the validity of author intentionality. The man's a legend, but he has no idea about the qualities that used to shine in his own work, and what comes clear for a fan of the "Italian Hitchcock" after a screening of Trauma is that the thrill is gone. It's one of those George Lucas situations where if it were anyone else shitting all over the legacy, there'd be a violent hue and cry instead of this collective embarrassed averting of gaze--a cheap ripper that steals scenes whole from better Argento flicks without a commensurate level of understanding of how to use them. Was a time that Argento redefined the slasher flick in the same way that countryman Sergio Leone redefined the Western; that Argento (like American rival and doppelgänger Brian...Bill ChambersTIFF '07: Mother of Tears: The Third Mothertag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017d3cab4b86970c2012-10-12T14:41:06-05:002012-10-12T14:46:01-05:00La terza madre ***/**** directed by Dario Argento by Bill Chambers Sanity and fatigue are ineluctable corrupting influences on an aging filmmaker, but it brings me great pleasure and no small relief to be able to report that while Mother of Tears: The Third Mother--Dario Argento's long-gestating conclusion to his "Three Sisters" trilogy--is neither as artful as Suspiria nor as dreamlike as Inferno, it nevertheless surpasses expectations fostered by Argento's recent work to emerge as his best movie in decades. Fitting that Argento should choose to tell the Rome-set story of Mater Lacrimarum last, marking this as a homecoming in more ways than one. In what feels like an in-joke, a better-than-usual Asia Argento (who else?) plays Sarah Mandy, the curator for the same museum that served as the locus of her character's problems in The Stendhal Syndrome. Here, it's ground zero for the eponymous witch's evil, unleashed after one of Sarah's colleagues unwisely disturbs the contents of a freshly-excavated urn. In no time flat Sarah is dodging cops and ghouls (and baboons and fashion models) in pursuit of her boyfriend, his son, and some satisfactory explanation as to her role in bringing down the Big Bad's coven; if this...Bill ChambersTwo Evil Eyes (1990) - Blu-ray Disctag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a0168ea36d6b2970c017d3c663538970c2012-09-29T12:00:15-05:002012-09-29T12:00:15-05:00*/**** Image B+ Sound B Extras B- starring Harvey Keitel, Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, Sally Kirkland screenplay by George Romero and Dario Argento & Franco Ferrini directed by George Romero and Dario Argento by Walter Chaw George Romero's Dawn of the Dead is a groundbreaking satire of our consumerist state, says the party line, the first film to be shot in that new phenomenon of a shopping mall and full of cogent commentary on how capitalism has become at once a Skinner box and religion instead of merely an organizing principle. That it's also deadening and sophomoric--or that it's dated in a way that Night and Day haven't, or that it's just not very scary, or tense, or, at the end of the day, deep--is seldom mentioned. Still, and despite the failure of Land of the Dead, there's Night of, Day of, and Diary of to confirm that Romero's zombie flicks are worthy genre pieces alight with insight into social issues. RUNNING TIME 120 minutes MPAA R ASPECT RATIO(S) 1.78:1 (1080p/MPEG-4) LANGUAGES English 7.1 DTS-HD MA English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD English DD 5.1 EX SUBTITLES English SDH French Spanish REGION All DISC TYPE BD-50 STUDIO Blue Underground They're also wildly...Bill Chambers